Aberrant: The Long March - Chapter 9: Where the Road Leads

[Mr Fox]

Quaid replies to Kyria with a simple, "Yeah," but if he was going to say anything else it's interrupted by Steve.

When he's heard Steve's question the strange statue-man pauses again, then says vehemently, "No, it is not true."

His voice calms a bit and he asks pleadingly, "Don't you understand? I feel like I was meant for something more than this."

[Courier]

Steve thought, *'I feel...' is from a movie. Don't remember which it was. But maybe pointing that out to the half(?) crazy AI wouldn't be a good idea.*

Steve said,

"Yeah, actually, we do understand. You're stuck down here and not living to your full potential, aren't you? What happened? Did they leave you here to guard the place and not come back?"

[Mr Fox]

Quaid, whatever he is, laughs raucously and says, "Whoever you are, get ready for a big surprise."

[Ulric Reikspar]

Much like Omar, what brings Ulric back is the belief that he can still fight. He still has his training and years of experience. That hasn't been stripped away.

As much as he wants to weep over how ... human his prideful intellect has become, there are other things he must do.

He goes to Joani,

"Calm down my love. This is a condition that we will get out from under. Hang in there."

Then he climbs down into the elevator, first checking his pistol.

[Andrew Murphy]

Originally Posted By: Ulric Reikspar

"... This is a condition that we will get out from under. Hang in there."

Andrew cackles, "What if we don't want to? Can't you feel it? It's gone, everything inhuman, for better or worse, has been stripped away! It's beautiful!"

Andrew pushes himself upright and sits facing Quaid, "Are you doing this? Can you tell us how? Can you tell ME how?"

[SkyLion]

"Something isn't right here." Cody croaked. "Whatever that thing is it's not playing with a full deck." Cody musters his courage and steps forward toward the animated statue, trying to get a better look at how it is able to move in spite of being made of solid concrete and apparently within the confines of some kind of quantum nullifying field.

[Joani]

Originally Posted By: Ulric Reikspar

He goes to Joani,
"Calm down my love. This is a condition that we will get out from under. Hang in there."

Ulric could tell that she was shivering and obviously not doing well. She looked at him but his words had little effect on her, yet she nodded at him trying to overplay her worries and outright fear.

Originally Posted By: Andrew Murphy

Andrew cackles, "What if we don't want to? Can't you feel it? It's gone, everything inhuman, for better or worse, has been stripped away! It's beautiful!"

Andrew pushes himself upright and sits facing Quaid, "Are you doing this? Can you tell us how? Can you tell ME how?"

Joani first winced and then glared at Andrew his questions adding more panic and fear to her worries. How could he even consider it? She was shaking her head nervously and looking for a way to escape... to get away from this hell.

[SalmonMax]

Into the silence following the group's reaction to the statue's latest words comes a new voice...as completely incongruous to the atmosphere and tension as applause would be.

Laughter. Female laughter. It has a slightly muffled quality, as if whoever was doing it was covering their mouth to try to stop.

The statue stops moving.

A warm soprano voice calls out, "You guys are too much. All right, I'm coming over. Just be warned that I am armed, and it will work in the interference field, ok? So no funny business. Really."

Another statue starts moving then. A female-looking one that holds a stone 'gun' that fits over its forearm in a sort of sleek, streamlined oblong shape (think the ZF-1 for those who have seen 5th Element). This statue, as stone as the others, moves much more naturally and fluidly than the racket man did as it walks over beside the formerly moving bit of masonry and waves.

"I'm Meri, and this is my place. I'm not an 'AI' or an alien or anything like that. I'm a nova."

She pauses then adds with wretched hopefulness, "You all seem...kind of sane. Sort of."

[Andrew Murphy]

Andrew suddenly stopped laughing, it trickeled off into a couple of erratic guffaws before he said, "I am now. Or maybe I've finally fallen over the edge into the abyss. Are you live or memorex? Am I sane or lost forever?" Andrew looked around but never really took his eyes off the girl who had either cured him or had been made up by him mind when the final crack shattered his sanity into dust.

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: SalmonMax

"I'm Meri, and this is my place. I'm not an 'AI' or an alien or anything like that. I'm a nova."

She pauses then adds with wretched hopefulness, "You all seem...kind of sane. Sort of."

Steve says dryly,

"Thanks. We get that a lot."

(To Andrew) Steve says, "You're sane Andrew. The field turned off your powers and that changed the way your mind works. Mine too, I feel slow and numb, like my mind is wrapped in gauze. You have the most enhanced mind of any of us so you're feeling it more. If either or us could Dorm we'd probably be used to this."

Steve turns back to the new nova and says,

"Sorry about that. Greetings Meri. Sorry to intrude on your home like this. We've been checking out some of the old historical records and found some indications that this place might be of interest. We'd assumed it'd have only dead baselines, not a live nova."


(OOC: Steve was lying when he called her a nova. He doesn't think she is any such thing).

[SalmonMax]

"There's more records intact?" Meri asks, clearly surprised. "Where? Where did you come from? Are there more?"

In her desperate eagerness, she starts to take a step forward..then visibly stops herself, jerking back as if from an invisible wall.

[Omar]

"We come from Earth, I assure you." Omar says, taking another step into the room. "My name is Omar Khudikias." He put his hand out for her to shake as he took another step towards her. Hopefully a pretty face would put her at ease.

When she stopped short, Omar did likewise. "Why did you stop?" He asked.

[SalmonMax]

"What? I almost walked into the..." Meri pauses, then changes tack. "Wait, what do you mean you're from Earth? Where else would you be from?"

[Omar]

Almost walked into what? He thought. Is she on the other side of the nullifying field? Or is there some kind of weapon set to go off at a certain place?

"You're the one who was looking at us like we were alien invaders." Omar said, trying to sound facetious. He hoped to reassure her that they meant no harm. "I am from Iraq." Omar would try to get her to open up, although he figured it would be easier for Ulric to do so. Still. Without any powers, Omar wondered how effective Ulric would be.

[SalmonMax]

"Iraq?!" Meri bleated, startled anew. "It survived? But how?! How many of you are there?"

She hesitates, then adds diffidently, "Um...do I have to become muslim then?"

[Joani]

Joani was slowly coming to as her panic subsided. She was still shaking and her heart beat fast. She moved slowly next to Omar trying to gather as much courage and resolve as she could muster. The young woman didn't seem to be overall hostile, she was defending herself.

"We're not all from Iraq...", her voice was still shakey and she cleared her throat before she continued to speak. "My name is Supe..., ahm, Joani. Joani Reikspar. Nice to meet you, Meri."

(ooc: as a side note, Joani is wearing the Supergirl suit in black like described at the beginning of the Chapter)

[SalmonMax]

"But this means...it means there must be civilization right?!" Meri demands, her voice sounding nearly in tears from joy. "Something survived! There's people! Normal people!"

She holds up a small device in her left hand and pushes a button on it.

"Oh my god, you have to tell me...what's been going on? I've been stuck here! It's too dangerous to stay out long enough to walk anywhere, and I haven't got any powers to move fast...I thought the whole world must have been destroyed!"

Her relief is almost manic in its intensity, and she comes forward towards the others, her rocky surface rippling and changing into skin and clothes as she moves.

(quantum device off! matter chameleon off!)

[Ulric Reikspar]

Ulric hopped down into the room - finally, and took stock of the situation.

"Greetings," he directed toward the stone 'nova' with a wave, "I'm Ulric Reikspar from Germany. My friends and I are from all over the globe. We've been going to various sites of promise and gathering what information and tech we can salavage in order to find a way out of this mess. We are not monsters, though taint has been harsh for some of us. Can you help us find out what is retrievable on this site?"

[Mr Fox]

(OOC: It takes a minute or two but all mega atts come back. Your quantum pools are empty however and will refill at the normal rate, this means no powers for now. Cody's armor is also still out of juice, and needing to be recharged.)

[Andrew Murphy]

The field collapsed and quantum once again bathed the area. Even as the others began to feel better Adrew cried out, "NNOOO!" He could feel his mind quickly eroding, the fury lurking at the edges of his consciousness returned as did the hunger, the inhuman hunger. Andrew fell back onto the floor sobbing, "No ... no ... I was free ... free..." Eventually he stopped and simply cried as he curled into a ball.

[Mr Fox]

A second after the field dropped the link activates and you hear Lorean, "What happened, is everyone alright? I lost communication with you and Michael and Morgan both couldn't get through." Before anyone has a chance to answer she continues with grim news, "There is a problem, a group of six novas are heading your way and they will be there in about ten minutes from the speed they are moving. Michael says they sensed the groups arrival and are moving to investigate, he says their intentions are hostile."

[SalmonMax]

Meri stares at Andrew, bemused...and visibly worried. And getting more worried. She starts stepping back away from the party warily.

"Is he...all right?" she asks.

[Joani]

"Talking about bad news... I still feel drained but I think I'm good enough to fend them off. What about you, Omar?", Joanis demeanor changed dramatically once Quantum fueled her body again. She looked at her husband and smiled at him not saying anything but giving him a little kiss instead.

"I'm going to be alright, but we may need to team up on this one. Our powers are still depleted so we better be careful.", she didn't wait for the others to agree and started to climb the ladder upstairs trying to make some time to get some advantage over the situation outside.

[SalmonMax]

*nuked!*

[Omar]

Seeing Andrew curled up made Omar sad. All Andrew had wanted was to be normal, and for a few minutes, he was. The shock of the returning Taint must have been impossible for him to deal with.

Omar himself, felt tired. His glowing nimbus barely gave off any light, and his own hunger had returned with a vengeance. In response, Omar popped two of the salt tablets into his mouth. It helped.

Lorien's warning couldn't have come at a worse time. With the incoming Novas, it was necessary to have something to call upon should it be needed. Omar remembered a prolonged conflict he and the other Paragon's were engaged in. In that battle, he was forced to recover his quantum at an accelerated rate. He had a headache for several days after he did. Omar would have to try and repeat the feat.

Quote:

"Talking about bad news... I still feel drained but I think I'm good enough to fend them off. What about you, Omar?"

"I am also without anything to draw upon." He said to Joani. "Although, I might be able to squeeze a few point from my node."

"Lorien." Omar said over the link. "Can you get us to the surface?"

((OOC: Rapid Recovery of 3 points))

[Mr Fox]

"I can Omar. Let me know when you are ready and I will teleport you here, then back down. I can do the same for the enitre group. Just give me the word."

[Omar]

"I'm ready to go now." Omar say to Lorien. He was looking at his teammates to see if they were ready as well.

[SalmonMax]

Meri's eyes widen.

"Wait, go? You just got here! Please don't go!"

[Courier]

Steve feels the world *slow* *down* to it's normal pace.

He says,

"Meri, one of the others just told us we have SIX hostile novas converging on this location. We have a long distance warper, what can we salvage in 8 minutes?"

[z028 Riley]

Kyria knelt down next to Andrew. "Andrew?" She put a hand out, not quite touching him, her voice was compassionate and concerned. "Come on. We need to get out of here, there are hostiles headed this way. The girl, the one who turned everything off, she might be able to do that again. We won't know if we don't get out of here though, so we need you to pull together for just a little while, okay?"

[SkyLion]

"..." Cody tries to speak in the aftermath of Meri's emergence.

Hmmmm...

When Lorean comes back online, Cody responds. *We're fine Lo. Thanks for the heads up. Are your transporters working? Good.*

As the other's prepare for battle, Cody mentions.

*Why are we so concerned? We can spring the same trap on them as we just walked into...take the Nullifying field upstairs and then Omar, Joani and the rest who can fight without juice can deal with them. I'm afradi I won't be much good in a fight on empty, but while the rest of you deal with them, Ulric, Andrew and I can hack the records down here. It shouldn't take long for us to get what we need if it's here. Theres a good chance we can be gone when they get here. We don't even need to engage. The nullifying field alone will give them pause long enough and Lo can evac us in a heartbeat...*

[SalmonMax]

Meri looks relieved. "Sure, we can just lure them into the novatrap, like you all were. I have more guns."

She hefts the streamlined ovoid on her right arm for emphasis.

"Good guns. Like this, some of them. They're all in the vault behind me. They can shoot into the field just fine."

[Courier]

Steve says,

"Sounds like a plan. First the null field. Then Omar and Joani take point. Anyway I'd rather do something like that than have a Omar level fight near a building I'm inside. No offense."

[Omar]

A big grin spread from ear to ear, as Omar was overjoyed by Steve's acknowledgement of his raw power. "None taken." he finally said.

"But I am curious if the nullifier will work outside." Omar would prefer to fight outside than indoors, but, as Omar knew all to well: You can't always choose your fields of battle. "Not that I care one way or the other." He really didn't. It had been awhile since he had been really challenged in a fight, and he wondered if he could defeat them while they were at full strength and he wasn't. The idea was tempting.

[Joani]

Originally Posted By: SalmonMax

"Good guns. Like this, some of them. They're all in the vault behind me. They can shoot into the field just fine."

"We don't need guns.", said Joani, "Just enough time to salvage as much as possible before we leave this place for good. I think Omar and I can keep them busy for another 5 minutes with or without the Nullifier. That'll give you roughly 13 minutes to work with. If that doesn't work... can Lorean Teleport a whole complex? Like the mainframe, assuming we know it's location?", Joani looked at Meri and Cody with an eyebrow raised.

[Andrew Murphy]

Andrew seems nonresponsive, his whole body shakes spasmodically and he is half crying half murmering to himself. Closer inspection shows that Andrew appears to be slowly melting, his features sag and drip towards the floor and his torso and limbs likewise appear as though he is not capable of solidifying his flesh enough to maintain his form.

[Ulric Reikspar]

Over the link Andrew is in a bad way. If we can't get him responsive, he needs to be teleported back to the ship. Kyria, can you check on him and make that call.

Ulric looks at his pistol and then to Meri's gun.

"Actually, I'll take one of your ordanance, please," he beckons Meri.

"And what do we call you, anyway?"

[Courier]

Over the link Steve sends, *Agreed.*

Quote:

Ulric looks at his pistol and then to Meri's gun.

"Actually, I'll take one of your ordanance, please," he beckons Meri.

"And what do we call you, anyway?"

Steve says,

"Ditto. And I'm Steve."

[SalmonMax]

Meri frowns and says, "Meredith, but everyone calls me Meri. You know...when there was an everyone to call me anything."

She motions with her head towards the back of the room.

"The vault's back here."

Meri takes whoever's interested to a large round door concealed in shadow. It has massive bolts through it, and an instrument panel that looks like it will open it.

"I don't know the code from out here," she admits. That doesn't seem to stop her though as she plunges into the door, vanishing through it as if it were an illusion. A moment later an alarm sounds, and a spinning red light comes on. There's a puff of air as the blast door's seal breaks...and then the whole thing splits down the middle and both rises up and sinks down to open. In the process it reveals several layers of thickness.

Meri stands just inside, smiling. "There's an emergency release inside...I guess in case someone was trapped in it and the power shut off."

And behind her, arranged on shelves and neatly organized and labeled, are the contents of the Proteus Vault.

(Which I will leave to Fox to detail. )

[Mr Fox]

The vault is much tidier than the last time you were in it. This time it hasn't been emptied out. The shelves are mostly full, though it does appear that perhaps a quarter of the contents have been removed. The familiar teleport device is taking up the entire far wall. Meri quickly leads those who follow to a section of shelving that holds what are obviously weapons judging from their general shape. They are each labeled and have a brief description of their function and damage type. Scanning over them quickly you note that none of them do what you would consider extreme damage, it looks like from the empty spots on the shelves and the way things are arranged, the highest damage weapons were already taken by someone else. Of the ones that remain the best are a rifle that shoots lightning bolts that do moderate damage, a weapon that looks pretty similar to a storm trooper carbine and shoots bolts of superheated plasma, and a very sci-fi looking stubby rod with a slight handle that is listed as firing laser beams.

There isn't time to go through the other contents of the room now. You grab those three weapons and move to get the damper into position just inside the door of building where the Aberrants are likely to come in.